About our school

A brief history of our school

Varga Katalin Gimnázium is one of the oldest secondary schools in Szolnok, founded in 1930 as an all-girls school. The institution has undergone several structural and conceptual transformations. In 1962 it became co-educational after a similar school, Tiszaparti Gimnázium, had been established.   

The school profile, the courses on offer and the composition of students in attendance have adapted to the constant changes in society and educational policies. The school was given its present name after Varga Katalin, whose life can be an example to us all.

Who was Varga Katalin?

Varga Katalin (1802 – after 1852) was born in Halmágy, in what is today Romania. She was brought up by her aunt in a poor family from the lesser nobility. During the 1840s she became known as an advocate for the rights of the mining villages of Zalatna Estate. She helped them lodge their appeals with the authorities and represented them in person in cities like Vienna, Cluj-Napoca, Pest and Bratislava. The authorities began to watch her activities with obvious disapproval and eventually she was branded as an ‘instigator’. Then in 1847, she was taken to court on trumped-up charges and was locked up in prison. In June 1851, Katalin Varga was allowed to return to her old village, where she is believed to have spent the rest of her life. Her life and activities exemplify a committed struggle for justice, legal protection and social engagement. 

The choice to name the school after Varga Katalin was made to set her integrity, courage and social sensitivity as an example.  

The school building

The building is located in the town centre, at 6 Szabadság Square, and was constructed in 1856. Designed and built by Lajos Obermayer in the Neoclassical style, it was purchased by Ferenc Hubay and is the town’s oldest tenement building. It featured a façade divided by ledges, arched window-heads and vaulted ceilings on the groundfloor, flat window-heads and flab structures on the upper floors. The rear façade facing an atrium-like yard was segmented with arched window-heads.  There are cast iron banisters in the staircase in the old wing. The building has been renovated several times but its neo-classicist traits are still dominant. Over the many decades, the building has served various purposes, for example, it was used as a law court, and a post office. Since 1930, it has functioned as a school. It underwent significant renovation and extension in 1989 and in 2020. The original Obermayer-design is a listed building.

The courses on offer

Varga Katalin Gimnázium is an upper secondary general school providing general academic education for students aged 14-19, and the primary aim is to help them prepare for and proceed to higher education.

In the 2024/2025 academic year, we have 540 students and a teaching staff of 50. The school offers six types of courses, all of which are general academic courses with varying emphasis on certain study fields and skills. All six courses prepare the students to pass successfully the school-leaving examinations, which entitles them to apply for places in higher education.

Course 1: Arany János Programme for Gifted Students (AJTP)

Course 2: general gifted education programme

Course 3: mathematics and English language programme

Course 4: English – Hungarian dual-language programme

Course 5: biology and chemistry programme

Course 6:  informatics / information technology programme

There are 17 forms (classes), with 30-35 students in each:

The other half of the A-classes are students who do not have any specific career plans or strong subject preferences at the age of 14.  In Year 9 – 10, the students take extra lessons in literature and history, where the focus is on promoting creativity through drama techniques and learning by discovering our local history.   

“Class B” students in Year 9 – 10 have extra lessons in mathematics and English in order to achieve solid foundations in these school subjects.

Besides their English language lessons, the participants in the English-Hungarian dual language course study some of the subjects (history, mathematics, physics, biology, geography) through the medium of English. The conversation and civilisation classes are conducted by native speaker teachers.  This type of course was first launched in 1988 and has proved highly successful ever since.

As in the case of the A-classes, D-classes have two strands: about fifty percent of the students specialise in biology and chemistry in Year 9 –10, whereas the other students focus on information technology. Their education is facilitated by a well-equipped science lab and IT-rooms.

In Year 11 and 12, in all six study programs, students can decide to study one or two subjects at a higher level, depending on the kind of higher education course they are planning on.      

Extra-curricular activities

The school is proud to maintain its own traditions. One of them is the so-called “Katalin Day”, when the newcomers, the Year 9 students introduce themselves to the older students. We celebrate Christmas together on the last day before the winter break. The students can run their school radio and publish in an English language literary journal. Symposiums are organised regularly where we can listen to students giving presentations about their research, foreign experiences. There are long-established clubs, the most successful of which are the drama club and the Model European Parliament club. The students in their final year celebrate by performing various dances at the ball specially organised every year in their honour. And the last and perhaps most spectacular tradition every May is the farewell ceremony of the school-leavers, where all the students, the parents, the teachers and even the residents of Szolnok celebrate together.

Sport and fitness play an important part in the students’ lives. Despite the lack of proper sports facilities, our students participate regularly and successfully in a range of sporting events and activities.

The school has accumulated considerable experience in international activities. We have had student exchange trips and international projects organised in cooperation with American, Belgian, British, German, Finnish, Israeli, Japanese, Polish, Slovak, and Swedish schools. The Covid-pandemic put an end to this long-running tradition but we are working on reviving this much appreciated field of activity.